I am a disabled retired school teacher living in Santa Rosa, CA 95401-and I can barely leave my home anymore due to my medical condition--but i happened to amble out to walk with my cat just after 10pm. At around 10:20 pm on Dec 2, 2018..I happened to be slowing walking in a Southern direction--my cat had stopped following me-so i turned around to see why. When I turned back around--toward the South--a bright light caught my eye. I looked up just a bit, and just in time to see this fireball doing a nosedive quite close toward the earth and becoming very bright --the head was like the size of a bi-plane if it had been on fire and crashing/nosediving. It also had a round much smaller firey ball also as a tail-but not the typical trail of a tail that you see--maybe due to the angle?? Cuz, it was almost a NOSE DIVE to toward earth. Only lasted 1-2 seconds it that. I was amazed!!!! Star struck! I'm age 61 and immediately contacted my old friend, John Whitehouse on Facebook, who heads the astronomy society in our county of Sonoma-to confirm what i saw. He immediately answered that I had seen a large meteor. I knew he would want to know what i had seen/witnessed, tho we have not talked in years..he once was a good friend. What are the chances of a disabled woman, who barely leaves my house, seeing this on the 1st night of Hanukkah? "the festival of light"--I did not realize the significance of this until later. Wow!

Location

Address

, CA

Latitude

38° 10' 59.62'' N (38.18°)

Longitude

121° 45' 36.62'' W (-121.76°)

Elevation

31.61m

Time and Duration

Local Date & Time

2018-12-02 22:20 PST

UT Date & Time

2018-12-03 06:20 UT

Duration

&ap;1.5s

Direction

Moving direction

From down left to up right

Descent Angle

7°

Moving

Facing azimuth

13.91°

First azimuth

15.51°

First elevation

20°

Last azimuth

29.15°

Last elevation

16°

Brightness and color

Stellar Magnitude

-26

Color

Yellow

Concurrent Sound

Observation

No

Remarks

-

Delayed Sound

Observation

No

Remarks

-

Persistent train

Observation

Unknown

Duration

-

Length

-

Remarks

-

Terminal flash

Observation

Yes

Remarks

The fireball was doing almost a complete nosedive toward earth. The part closest to earth was go bigger--like size of a bi-plane if it was on fire maybe? and there was a tail ball that was much smaller but also very bright as the head of the fireball expanded before disappearing. It seemed very close to earth. I kept waiting for a crash sound-but there was none. I was north of Hwy 12 and stony point looking south. It was close to me. Fireball seemed to land South of Hwy 12 in Santa Rosa and a bit West of Stony Point Rd--if it could have landed, and not burnt out. It was HUGE!